Behind the Scenes
by Haiti2013
Summary: "So are you sure you're okay with the whole Samchel thing?"


_**Hey guys! So this is something I wrote sometime during season 6 and I wanted to share.**_

 _ **It is a one shot so I hope you like it!**_

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"So are you sure you're okay with the whole _samchel_ thing," asked Kurt, twitching slightly as he said Sam and Rachel's name together.

"Yes," Mercedes nodded as earnestly as possible. "Why do you keep asking me that?" she replied as they got out of Kurt's car. They had stopped by the Lima Bean before glee rehearsal to grab a quick bite and were now making their way passed McKinley's front doors.

"Because you shouldn't be," her friend insisted as he ruffled through his satchel for the day's sheet music. "They aren't a good fit."

"Have you told Rachel that?" she asked.

"Of course," the brunette answered. "But every time I try to talk to her about Sam, she insists I'm not in the 'right mind set' to be commenting on her relationships," he explained with aggressive air quotes. Mercedes stopped walking.

"The right mind set?" she repeated. "What does that mean?"

"It's Rachel's not so nice way of saying, I'm just jealous," Kurt claimed, rolling his eyes. He intertwined his arm in Mercedes' and got her moving again.

"Huh," sighed Mercedes. "Rachel isn't usually that subtle."

"Please, she's as subtle as a hurricane," her friend continued. "She just needs me right now, these lessons have been getting harder and harder to plan."

"Oh, well if you guys need any help," she offered. "I'm going to be here for a while."

"Really?" Kurt asked. "I know you're technically on vacation-"

"Don't even sweat it," Mercedes smiled. "And besides, looking up lesson plans might even give me ideas for my own songs."

"Well if you insist," grinned Kurt as they reached the choir room.

"And I do," she asserted.

"Alright," he said. "You want tow meet at my house after practice?"

"Sure, when?"

"Five?"

"Make it six?" she asked. "I've got to skype Tank tonight."

"Of course," he agreed. Kurt and Mercedes were the first to arrive and he began to write something on the board while she set up chairs.

"Thanks again for helping me pack up my room," Rachel said as she and Sam walked into the choir room.

"Sure," he nodded quickly. "Anything for you." Mercedes looked up from separating the chairs to see Kurt glance at his two friends in the doorway and roll his eyes before returning to the whiteboard. She smiled to herself.

"So, I was thinking that we could go to a movie after glee today," Rachel continued, unaware of the two bodies already in the room.

"Yea," Sam agreed. "I really want to see Kingsman, it's supposed to be really good."

"Oh," Rachel said softly, her smile fading a little. "Well, that really isn't a romantic movie."

"Why would we see a romantic movie?" the blond asked. "It isn't Valentine's Day."

"Well yes," the brunette agreed. "But romance shouldn't be confined to a single day in the year."

"Yea but since we're taking things slow, there's no real pressure to be all romantic and gushy yet, right?" he asked seriously.

"Right but since this is a date," Rachel pointed out, her voice getting stricter. "I really think we should view a date movie."

"Is that what this is about? Labels?" asked Sam. "Fine, then let's not call it a 'date'," he posited. "Let's just 'hang out' at the movies later, so then we can watch a normal movie."

"So you don't want to go on a date?" she accused.

"That's not what I said," Sam replied quickly. "Just that I don't want to see a date movie."

"Well that's ridiculous," Rachel hollered, she quickly looked around the room and finally noticed the other people getting ready for rehearsal. "Kurt!" she said sharply, yet trying to appear impartial. "What do you think?"

Kurt looked up from the white board. He had finished writing for a while but was afraid that any sudden movements would have given Rachel a reason to enter him in her squabble with Sam but as luck would have it – it happened anyway.

"I don't really have an opinion," Kurt shrugged, placing down the Expo marker and heading to the piano.

"Well, what about you Mercedes?" Rachel demanded when Kurt didn't give her the answer she wanted. "Don't you think we should see a romantic movie?"

Mercedes paused for a moment as she stared at the brunette busy body at the front of the room. She had just helped Rachel get an audition for an upcoming Broadway musical, told her to go after Sam and agreed to mentor some of the glee students. Now she wanted advice for dates? Mercedes was beginning to think that being Rachel Berry's friend was a full time job.

"Well," she began, wondering how to properly word her thoughts. "You can't go wrong with Samuel L. Jackson," Mercedes insisted. "The man is a legend. He's been in more movies than I can count and he's hilarious. I mean, he's Nick Fury."

"Exactly!" laughed Sam, letting go of Rachel's hand and gesturing at Mercedes. "She gets it!"

"I don't know what a 'Nick Fury' is," the brunette claimed, crossing her arms.

"The Avengers?" aided Mercedes but Rachel shook her head.

"Alright," Sam definitively. "Well, we're going to have to have a Marvel marathon." He then walked to the back of the choir room and helped Mercedes finish setting up the chairs.

"Oh goodie," Rachel grumbled before helping Kurt gather the proper sheet music. The managed to get the room set up just in time as the last bell of the day rang and echoed down the halls. Soon, students were filling in through the front door along with other glee alumni that happened to be in town. Mike and Artie were going to be visiting for only two weeks but it was enough time to get the New New New Directions off on the right foot. While Kurt and Rachel went over the week's lesson with the students, Sam, Artie, Mike and Mercedes sat listening in the right side of the room. Artie was scrolling through his phone, sending sporadic text messages while Sam simply gazed forward, watching the room. Mercedes was trying to pay attention but her mind kept drifting to some other things on her mind like her next album and a probable tour.

"Mercedes," Mike whispered, nudging her arm.

"Yea?" she asked absentmindedly.

"Who's Tank?"

"What?" Mercedes replied, focusing on him now. "Who told you about Tank?"

"Who do you think?" he smiled, nodding his head at Sam.

"Of course," she smiled. "He's this singer I met in California."

"Is he good?"

"His music is different," she explained. "He is trying to create a new 'gospel sound', or so he tells me. It's soulful and serious but also has a beat that makes you want to dance."

"Oh," Mike nodded. "That does sound interesting. Is he going to be debuting an album soon?"

"He's still in the writing phase so it might be a while," she replied. "Why?" she teased. "You thinking of buying it?"

"Hey," laughed her friend. "You know us dancers. Always have to be on top of whatever new hot trend might pop up."

"Uh huh, okay." Mercedes then tried to pay more attention to Rachel in the front of the class as she started separating the kids into groups. Kurt had told her about today's lesson earlier. They were going to give two to three kids to a mentor to work out some weaknesses that were preventing the team to mesh properly. She would be in charge of the singers that seemed to only provide backup vocals. Rachel claimed that everyone on the team had the potential to be a soloist, so she needed Mercedes to unlock some star power. Let the kids know that even if they don't one hundred percent believe in themselves, they can still take the chance. Go for that higher note, mix up your breathing pattern, or even change your music genre, yeah it could be hard but it was worth it. And Mercedes was willing to help them find that place where these students would shine the brightest. She thought about what kinds of exercises she would suggest to get these kids out of their comfort zone when she felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Mike.

"So," he said slowly. "You and Tank?"

"What?" she asked, perplexed.

"You told me about him but you didn't mention anything about you and him."

"Was I supposed to?" Mercedes responded, wondering where this was coming from. She and Mike were good friends who texted a lot but they didn't really talk about each other's relationships. It wasn't like a weird rule or anything, it just never came up – until now.

"Oh, well I don't want to prod," he claimed. "It sounded serious and I just thought it was weird that I hadn't heard of him before."

"Ah, okay. Well, to start off, it isn't really that serious," she explained, realizing his point. Even if relationships weren't their go to discussion topic, she admitted that she'd feel weird if he came home and everyone was saying that he was in a serious relationship with no warning. "At least not yet," she added.

"Alright," Mike accepted, tilting his head downward slightly. He wasn't telling her something, she could feel it.

"What is it?"

"What?"

"Why are you acting so weird?"

"Okay, can I ask you a question?"

"Yea, shoot."

"Promise not to get mad?"

"I promise nothing. My advice to you is think about your question carefully and ask yourself: is it worth it if she gets mad?"

"Right," he complied, appearing to think over his question on more time. He took a breath and quickly spit the words out. "What happened between you and Sam? One moment you guys are living together and then you're not."

Once he revealed his inquiry, Mike continued to stare at her and Mercedes simply returned the gaze. She opened her mouth to respond but a concrete answer was nowhere to be found. _It just wasn't right_. _We're at different places in our lives. We don't want the same things._ Those are the answers she had told everyone else. They're the ones she had rehearsed and taught herself was the truth. She and Sam had separated on amicable terms. They loved each other but whenever they were together, the universe seemed to want something else.

"It just wasn't right," she shrugged. Mercedes watched as the expression on her friend's face went from anticipating to perplexed.

"Wasn't right?" he repeated. "What does that mean? You didn't feel good together?"

"No, it's not like that."

"Could you see a future together?"

"Well, yea," she claimed. Ever since they started living together, Mercedes enjoyed their living dynamic. It wasn't perfect but it was never boring and she genuinely felt excited to come home. Sam had tried to expand his cooking repertoire past fried chicken so every other day there would be a new meal that he had seen Bobby Flay prepare on TV on the dinner table. At first she was very wary of what he was cooking especially since if they were out of a certain item he would try to use a random replacement. Artie tapped out of the experimental dishes but Mercedes couldn't do that to Sam, especially after seeing how much effort he put into them. At first, it was pretty risky but by the tenth dish, the food was becoming edible. She also missed the talks they would have in bed before falling asleep. T he first couple of days after getting back together, they didn't really talk much but once they did, it became her favorite part of the day. She liked hearing about Sam's calls back to home and about how his siblings were growing up so fast. He'd also been keeping up on the R'nB scene and gave her tips on people she might want to collaborate with in the future and helped her work out lyrical issues she was having with a few songs. She also missed—

"Earth to Mercedes!" Mike said, a little too loudly. As the diva emerged from her own whirlpool of memories, she noticed the entire class turned in her direction. Even Rachel had stopped talking to glance her direction, tilting her head slightly to the right in confusion. Mike, embarrassed, looked down to the ground until every slowly turned back around. Mercedes glared at him before looking at Kurt quickly, who hadn't even noticed the interruption because he was absorbed in some messages on his phone. When no one said anything but kept staring at her, she reflexively looked at Sam. The blond was also watching her in confusion but when she returned his gaze, he realized that she had been caught off guard. He immediately sprang into action.

"That was a test guys!" he exclaimed, standing out of his chair and shaking his head disappointedly. Everyone turned to face him, wondering what in the world he was talking about. "And I'm sorry to say that even some of our most esteemed graduates failed."

"What are you talking about?" Rachel asked, whilst Sam began to take her spot at the front of the room.

"It's okay," he claimed, shooing her to a chair in the front row. "It's the thing we planned earlier," he continued, giving her a look but she simply stood there.

"We didn't—"

"Yes," he stressed. "It's fine though, I'll explain it to the group." Rachel gave him a look of complete confusion before heading to her seat. When she sat down, she crossed her legs, rested her arms on top of them and leaned forward with a worried look etched across her face.

"So," Sam smiled at the group of performers. "At Sectionals and all other proceeding competitions, there _will_ be times where we are thrown off guard. Someone steals your set list, a singer is absent, someone could even faint but we as a team need to learn to keep moving forward. It's very easy to get distracted by sounds, lights or even the thrill of a competition but if we can't focus, we're in big trouble. Glee club is our practice time, it's really the only chance we get to work together as a team, sometimes even with awesome mentors," he smiled at his old glee club members at the back. "So when we're here please don't get wrapped up in what others are doing whether it's texting on their phone or causing loud interruptions. Thank you Mike and Mercedes for giving that demonstration." He nodded to his friends in back, gave Rachel the go ahead to take back control of the lesson and sat down.

"Yes," Rachel nodded regaining her momentum. "Focus is really important." As she continued the lesson, Mercedes sighed in relief. She glanced over at Sam a couple of rows ahead of her and he was looking in her direction as well. Grateful, she mouthed the words _thank you_ , he simply smiled and winked at her.

"You're right," smiled Mike as he watched the exchange. "There's absolutely nothing going on there."

"Shut up."

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 _ **A/N: Thanks for reading! :)**_


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